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Prof. of Constitutional Law at Harvard says that SOPA violates First Amendment
- biesnecker 15y agoOh, whew, thank Jeebus, because we all know that Congress would never do anything that would violate the Bill of Rights. :-|
- ORioN63 15y agoSOPA is just plain ridiculous. It just makes sense to those who still didn't understand, that the Internet is probably the most important human invention, since written communication. I'm not from the United States, but it will be ridiculous, if that law passes. Apparently common sense, these days, is actually pretty rare...
- kiba 15y agoIf you have the mindset that everything that is copyrighted should be controlled by you, than you would see the internet as a threat, because it is the ultimate copying machine. I think the RIAA would lose 10 dollars and make 1 dollars back in order to stop piracy. They don't have this concept of working with the internet to make even more money. It's either the highway or their way. Frankly, I don't care much about the whole creative industry going away or not going away. Actually it's getting bigger. I wouldn't notice, because there's so much games out there and people who are willing to produce arts, musics, and games for free just because. Even if they stop producing games, I wouldn't notice. I would never be able to enjoy all these things in my lifetime anyway. What people should be doing is finding good old stuff to read or improve on existing works, which is kinda prohibited by copyright laws in the first place. It seems that we are too biased to "new stuff" even though there are a bunch of old stuff we missed. I mean, WW2 shooters are just the same old, same old. Yet we buy them years after years. Now it's modern wartime. I am sure in 30 years time, it will be WW2 again.
- retrogradeorbit 15y ago"...than you would see the internet as a threat, because it is the ultimate copying machine." Not so. The Internet copies nothing. It's the ultimate (and not centrally controlled) _distribution_ machine. Piracy was going on well before the Internet came along. And distribution too, but then it was via BBS's, not the Internet. Passing this law will do absolutely nothing to stop copying, or distribution. It will just have a huge chilling effect.
- billswift 15y ago>Not so. The Internet copies nothing. It's the ultimate (and not centrally controlled) _distribution_ machine. It is the ultimate copy machine as much as distribution. Every time it distributes something it does so by making another copy.
- ThePinion 15y agoSo... Would this make any difference if it was presented to Congress? Isn't it their duty to protect the Constitution?
- pavpanchekha 15y agoActually, that's the Judicial's role --- foremost the Supreme Court's. So if SOPA passes, there's a reasonable chance that we'll strike it down in a decade. But that'd be a scary decade.
- xer0 15y agoIt's every federal employee's role, including the TSA and Congress, by the oath they take to protect and defend the constitution. The military, as well as some state employees, all take similar oaths. It's job number one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_office#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_office#United_States
- cperciva 15y agoReminder: Reasonable people often disagree. The Consumer Electronics Association has found an expert who thinks that SOPA is unconstitutional; I'm sure the MPAA can find an equally reputable expert who thinks that SOPA is not unconstitutional. Unless you interview a random sample of experts ("80% of constitutional law professors say...") or find some privileged experts ("the Supreme Court says...") relying on expert opinions really doesn't get you anywhere useful.
- rayiner 15y agoLaw isn't really big enough where there are a room full of people equally as reputable as Lawrence Tribe that you can poll. This is really more like "Paul Dirac says X about physics."
- Confusion 15y agoIn which case it is known that all the great minds in physics have made wrong predictions at one time or another. I think it should be read like that: this professor of law predicts that it will be found unconstitutional.
- rayiner 15y agoSure, but even given that the headline is reasonable. It is quite rational to judge the credibility of a prediction on the basis of the credibility of the person making the prediction. Paul Dirac might've been wrong numerous times in his career, but you can bet if another physicist got a letter from Dirac disagreeing with their results, they'd check their math a couple of more times!
- Confusion 15y agoI agree. My response wasn't intended to convey disagreement.
- jacobolus 15y agoLaurence Tribe isn’t just some “reasonable guy” or even “reputable expert”. He’s one of the most famous and respected constitutional scholars and professors in the nation: he taught constitutional law to two sitting Supreme Court Justices and the current President.
- rayiner 15y agoBullet 3 is extremely insightful. How much of this do you think is really about little Timmy "stealing music" and how much is about getting a powerful tool to fight Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter. Remember, MTV used to be, in many ways, like the Twitter of the 1980's.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- codemac 15y agoNew goal, troll reddit, post with better titles.
- yummyfajitas 15y agoI'm curious - many people here often express the belief that corporations should not have "free speech rights" [1]. Will those individuals now come out and apply the same reasoning in defense of a SOPA-like law, but one which only applies to corporate websites? I doubt I'd agree with such arguments, but they would certainly be intellectually interesting. [1] Courts have not ruled that corporations have free speech rights, but that the owners of corporations have the right to use their property in the furtherance of speech. But regardless, there is a certain set of rights that many here oppose.
- mithaler 15y agoWhat would a "SOPA-like law that only applies to corporate websites" be? SOPA gives rights holders a process for removing content from websites that they own rights to. What would the equivalent be for a corporate website?
- yummyfajitas 15y agoThe process for removing content could only be used against websites owned by a corporation. I.e., rights holders could remove stuff from youtube, but not from yummyfajitas.com.